Mark 1:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Mark 1:2

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‘As it is written in the prophets.’ We must never forget the forerunner, John the Baptist. When Christ appeared it wasn't that the nation was hearing the gospel for the first time. When Christ appeared, he had been prepared for, and something quite sensational and dramatic had happened in the land, which meant that everybody knew that the time had come. Messiah, his age had dawned; a new age had come. The ministry of John the Baptist was astonishing, and everybody either heard him or knew about him. The whole land was awakened. This makes it all the more amazing that the nation rejected Christ. Even before his own public ministry began he was made famous by the proclamation of John. Now when you read the Gospel of Mark, you see this quite clearly: the impact that the ministry of John made. ‘As it is written in the prophets.’ The gospel is in all the prophets, but only two prophets will be quoted by Mark. He is going to quote Malachi and Isaiah, because these two refer to the ministry of John the Baptist himself. Malachi says, ‘Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.² But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: ³ And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi’ (Malachi 3:1-3). That was Christ and John the Baptist before him, who would call for repentance and speak of the remission of sin, and Christ would make it possible by his atoning death and suffering on Calvary's cross. ‘And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers’ (Malachi 3:5). He would be followed by a great judgment in A.D. 70: the fall of Jerusalem to Rome, the destruction of the city, and of the land. So there would be warning through the forerunner and what he would do.

Application

Questions

We remember that there is only one great historical figure in the world who has ever been the subject of prophecy. Prophecy of people, of persons, is extremely rare in human history. Vague nonsense prophecies abound, but there's only been one person who has been, in detail, many, many times, very specifically, prophesied, even centuries before he came, and that is Christ Jesus our Lord. This is one of the astonishing things that may well be brought up in the day of judgment: that God gave things that were amazing, which verified and authenticated Christ, the very phenomenon of prophecy, and people paid no attention. Of course there are some subsidiary figures who are the subject of prophecy. John the Baptist himself was prophesied, and the mode of his ministry and what it would be for, but even then, it is Christ who is the focus of the prophecy. ‘As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger’ – that is John the Baptist – ‘before thy face’, and here the Father seems to addressing the Son .

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Mark 1:2 Commentary and Bible Study